ROAD COMMISSION: Ellison Road project gets underway

The long-awaited fix to Ellison Road over Bellamy Creek began Monday with excavation to clean out the old culvert and concrete.

But that is not the case with Four Mile Road over the tributary to the Flat River. That project is on hold until funds can be found to complete the repairs.

Ellison Road, west of Johnson Road, in Easton Township, and Four Mile Road, about 1,000 feet west of Whites Bridge Road, have been closed since spring flooding washed out the areas.

Ionia County Road Commission Managing Director Dorothy Pohl anticipates that workers on Ellison Road will square up the sides and pour a new base for the culvert next week. She hopes the project will be completed in four to five weeks.

“The biggest hold-up will be if it is snowing and we get tied up with snow removal,” Pohl said. “If there is other emergency maintenance, that’s where we’re going to be.”

Pohl said the project could end up costing less than the $200,000 bid, and she is still waiting to receive a final amount from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for how much of the cost they might cover. FEMA typically pays 75 percent of the amount the agency approves for a disaster-related project, she said.

FEMA has indicated it will only approve up to $30,000 toward the Four Mile Road repairs, while the road commission’s estimate for that project, which includes a larger culvert, is close to $200,000, said Pohl.

“We’ll look for funding next year,” she said. “It will probably depend on the cost of doing it ourselves instead of a contract on it, and if the township is willing to help and what else can put aside to do it.”

The road commission also is talking with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality about simply replacing the culvert with one of the same size, “considering FEMA won’t approve making it bigger,” said Pohl.

“It makes sense for everyone: for the county, for the taxpayer, for the state,” she said. “The feeling is (the culvert) is not too small; it was plugged with debris and that caused it to fail.”